Homeless advocates think Miami Beach’s new crackdown on the unsheltered goes to far

MIAMI – Miami Beach is about to implement a new crackdown on people experiencing homelessness and some think the city is going too far.

By next weekend, city police officers will be able to arrest unhoused people sleeping on the streets if they decline to be placed in a shelter.

This issue has made its way to the United Nations, according to Axios. Homeless advocates told the UN in Geneva that the new law breaks a treaty the U.S. signed back in 1992.

Local advocates for the unsheltered think it’s a bad idea.

“So I get the frustration. We just don’t think it’s a good idea to arrest people for being homeless. Its a revolving door at the jail, you bring them in and you put them out.” said Ron Book, Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.

Some leaders with Miami Beach argue this is not about criminalizing homelessness but making unhoused people accept available help services.

“They turn down services because they’re just not ready to accept them. Here’s what we know. A 90 percent decrease in unsheltered homelessness in this community over 31 years shows that our persistent efforts to get people off the streets, even those that are resistant, they eventually come off,” said Book.

Book said efforts to help unhoused people have reduced those on the streets dramatically. He said 31 years ago when the trust started, Miami Beach had a population as big as other major urban cities in the country.

“We all had between 8,000 and 11,000 unsheltered people. While we shouldn’t find this acceptable we’re down to 980 unsheltered while in Los Angeles where I went to visit (school) Superintendent (Alberto) Carvalho at his invitation on homelessness three weeks ago, they now have 79,000,” he said.

Book said the new ordinance is not moving in the same direction as all the progress that’s been made.

“It’s not that they’re resisting the services, they don’t want to come into a shelter, so our housing market, which is so terrible on availability and price, you got to get them into housing first and a case worker work those people once they’re in housing to stabilize and working them and working them to take our services,” said Book.

He said that helps give them a 98 percent success rate in helping to stabilize and get those people to accept services.

Book also pointed out that Mayor Dan Gelber and Commissioner Alex Fernandez, two key proponents of this new ordinance, have been great supporters of their efforts to reduce the number of unsheltered people. He said he understands their constituents are frustrated but said they have to work to find alternatives.